Eyes of a Nobody
by AtomicScribble
Summary: What a strange little girl she was. No pairings, OC. Rated for cursing like crazy. FIN!
1. Nonexistant Ramen

**I decided to start a short little thingie...thing. This is based off of an unreleased fic that I should release in summer or so.**

**It's basically my OC in the eyes of each member of Organization XIII, as a warm-up for said unreleased fic. It's just something for fun, so.**

**Starting with Xemnas, argh.**

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To be as honest as I can be, I don't know why I decided to recruit her.

To start, she is not a Nobody; no, there is a _heart_ beating in her chest, meaning that she could betray us at any time, forced to follow what her heart believes she should follow. Because her being remains intact and is truly real, she is not a member of my Organization. She remains simply an ally, Number Zero.

The girl is not what you would expect of someone so young, younger than the Keyblade Wielder when he started out on his journey. She has many morals set for herself, and her life is planned out from the very time of day she brings it up to the second of her death. Despite this knowledge of herself, she admits that she has no knowledge of how to deal with people, fearful of offending others. She treats us Nobodies as if we were real people, my assumption being that that is how she was raised and would not settle for anything less.

I walked in on her while she was trying to make her lunch. Unlike the rest of my Organization, she leaves her coat unzipped while she does not have a mission to attend that day, keeping on a favorite shirt and the standard black pants on underneath. Most of the time she wears socks to cover her bare feet, but there has been more than one occasion where she doesn't bother and many have caught her padding around barefoot. Her gloves were off, set aside on the table.

She started to pour the Ramen she was making into a bowl, eventually pouring too much. She made a sound of annoyance and made to pour the spare soup into the sink, but instead spilled most of it on the counter.

"Fuck," she cursed, not knowing I was in the room, and proceeded to take a large amount of paper towels and try to mop up the mess, to no avail. "Double fuck."

I walked over to her, and she turned. "Hi, Xemnas," she mumbled nervously, cleaning even faster.

"Number Zero, are you sure that you can fend for yourself?"

She shot me a dirty look, which I returned with somewhat of a smirk. "'Course I can! I make Ramen noodles all the time, I spill only sometimes. God."

I crossed my arms and stepped back, watching her finish the job. She was such a touchy little thing, snapping at others if she happened to not feel well. In this instance she was underrested, complaining of only getting a few hours of sleep the night before.

She took her steps with half-hearted grace, lugging the (now somewhat emptier) bowl to the long table. She pulled a purple case of of her pocket and opened it up. It was empty.

I was about to comment when she opened her mouth, stuck her fingers in, and removed a contraption from the roof of her mouth and set it in the case, closing it again.

"What is that?" I asked her.

"Retainer." She said it as if I should know what it was. I sat down across from her and watched her eat.

She was messy; that was one aspect of her she didn't bother to hide as she spooned a handful of noodles into her mouth and took a great bite, taking her time, broth dribbling a little out of her mouth. She wiped her chin clean and sniffled as she swallowed, preparing to take another bite. I tilted my head absentmindedly, absorbing her curiousness.

She looked up. "What, do you want some?"

"No."

Shrugging, she returned to her meal.

When I had recruited her to aid me, she had demanded that she was assigned an element just like the rest of us. I handed over the element of Emotion, which she accepted grudgingly. "All of the good elements are taken," she growled to herself as she stalked off to an empty area to go train soon after I had talked to her. However, she showed aptitude, being fast enough to catch even skilled fighters somewhat off-guard. She was weak, though, and could get hurt easily. She's cried before as a result, but she is indeed getting better at withstanding pain. Her weapons, a kind of throwing star that reminded me of Number Eight's chakram, served more for display and intimidation than harming the enemy. When I mentioned her weapons' similarity to Axel's, she snorted. "I've got shruiken. Axel's got chakrams. There's a difference, _Xemnas_."

I couldn't order her about, but there was a level of respect that kept her with us. I admired her somewhat for that.

She finished her lunch and got up, cleaning the dish and setting it in the sink before retreiving her purple case and sticking the retainer back in her mouth, chasing it with a swig of water.

"Is there any work I can do? I'm bored."

I laughed quietly. "Not many people say they are honestly suffering of boredom here."

"You aren't answering my question."

Without waiting to hear an answer, she threw up her hands. "I'll go read, then. Ugh, boring-ass castle with nothing to do." She hesitated, then added, "No pun intended."

I stood. "Nothing to laugh at."

She sighed, patted my back in a friendly manner, and walked out, mumbling about video games she had to work on. Poor girl couldn't make portals or anything of the sort, so she had to walk about the enourmous castle, prefering to take elevators when they were available. It was "good exercise anyway", so she never complained.

Dxamana the Resistant. That's what her name should've been.

I stretched lazily, hearing the crinkling of paper from behind. Eyebrows furrowing in confusion, I reached behind to pluck a note off of my coat.

It read, in Dxamana's somehow neat scrawl, "I am so gay for Saix."

"NUMBER ZERO!"


	2. Defying Gravity

**Going on to Xigbar...**

**-Edited for characterization regarding the OC.-**

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I don't care what the rest of us say, I kinda like her.

She had told me right from the get-go, no pussyfooting it, that she thought I was a pretty cool guy, although she had always complained that I was a bitch to beat in training. Laughing, I couldn't help but agree with her. What fighter worth their salt wouldn't?

But all flattery aside, she seriously knew too much for a little girl. I'd like to see her and Vexen go at each other, y'know? Just rambling off random facts and then seeing who gave up first. _That'd_ be something.

One day she approached me in the hall after a mission.

"How can you hang upside down, Xigbar?"

Deciding to play with her, I replied, "'Cause I can."

Her face grew serious; obviously she wasn't going to just give up. "Not true. The world is rotating-at least, mine is-at 1,000 miles an hour, creating gravity and keeping us on. How can you not float away but stand upside down?"

I snorted and started to walk away. Like I said, the kid knows too much for her own good, and if she was going to be a know-it-all I wanted nothing to do with it. "Come on, Dxamana. Don't you have any imagination?"

She caught my sleeve and smirked. "Plenty, why?"

Let me take the time to say that Dxamana was no squirt. She stood almost as tall as I did, and hit just below Xemnas' shoulder. Therefore, she could stare me in the eye without having the disadvantage of having to stare upwards like a dog.

I smirked back at her and shook her off of my arm. "Doesn't seem like it."

"You're just mad because I'm ripping on your style." She covered her eye, giggling. "Arrrrrr! I'm a pirate!" she said in the deepest, gruffest voice she could muster.

And then she proceeded to skip around, hair swishing in its ponytail, singing, "Sailing, sailing, jumping off the railing! Drinking, drinking, 'till the ship is sinking!"

I gave her a good smack upside the head next time she came around. As if! I was no pirate; I just had lost an eye in my other life, that's all. If anything, Luxord was the pirate of the Org., talking of ships and all of the loot he could get if only he had a cannon, some gunpowder, and a match or two.

...Personally, I don't want to see Luxord with firearms of some kind. Don't ask or say that I should be worrying if Axel or Saix or some other Nobody had a gun. It'll make you look smarter.

Ignoring the fact that she probably now had a stinging welt upside the head, she continued to sing, now running down the hall away from me. "Gambling, stealing, lots of sex-appealing!"

And if the situation couldn't get any stupider, _Demyx_, of all people, poked his blond head out of a nearby door and wailed along with her. "Come, let us sing the Sailor Song!"

I guess I'm right up there with Xemnas for wondering why we needed her running around when we already had people like Axel and Demyx being stupid. Comic relief, I guess; we had too many serious people here, and the fact that everything was silver or white or black or navy in The World That Never Was didn't help things much.

Suddenly, she stopped and called down the hallway, "You never answered my question, Xiggy-Xiggy-Xigbar!"

And I called right back, "Because the world, gravity too, can go fuck itself!"

"That's it!"

She's not half-bad at fighting, can somewhat hold her own in an argument, is annoying as all hell regardless...

Yeah, I kinda like her.


	3. Lancer's Truth

**Despite his fanbase, I don't really care for Xaldin. Dx His battle was just hard and he was just SCARY.**

**Muahaha. I got fanfiction dot net to work.**

**-Edited for characterization regarding the OC.-**

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She is a nice break from Larxene, that's for sure. Not that I enjoy ogling women obsessively, but having another female in the castle is good.

Those were my thoughts exactly when Larxene came into the picture, but she turned out to make even some of our tougher members cower at the sight of her. Larxene's fierceness is very good for the progression of our Organization, however, and she is valuable indeed.

And then another girl came into the picture. Xemnas refused to regard her as a normal member, seeing as she was not a true Nobody, but she calls herself one of us. Why?

To be honest, even I don't know. She's silly at times, sometimes acting even stupider than Demyx, but I suppose that's because of her young age. I'm sure that she should wisen up soon; already she can be incredibly sober when nessecary.

Today, however, she was in one of her silly moods.

"Xaldin!"

I turned to see her hobbling into the kitchen, dishtowel over her head and...was that lipstick on her cheeks? Sometimes acting her age wasn't one of her strong points, and this was one of those times. Even though her upbeat attitude can help lighten the melancholy atmosphere of The Castle That Never Was, I must admit it's annoying.

She finally approached me, back bent over, and looked up so that we were eye-to-eye.

"I'm going to saaaaaaaaaaaay the sooth!"

Except...it didn't sound like "sooth". Because of her strange, squeaky voice that she adorned when wanting attention, it came out sounding more like "soof".

Her eyes darted behind me, and nodded as if she was seeing something relevant. I raised my eyebrow.

"AHA! I see it!" she screamed suddenly, catching me off-guard. I stumbled.

"Goodness, girl!" I mumbled under my breath.

"You will have..." She looked behind me again, then held up five fingers. "Five children! And uh..." She looked behind me again. "You will also have a crossdressin' Xemnas as a wife and a huge swimming pool of green Jello!"

I sighed. This was incredibly stupid...and a waste of my time. It was a shame that there was no job for people who had a knack for making time fly with unnessecary comments and rants; if that were so, little Dxamana wouldn't be with us now. (Let me say here that she is not entirely useless: she can at least fight, albeit rather clumsily, and she can identify emotion better than any of us here can.)

"Number Zero, I believe you are only spouting nonsense."

She flicked the dishtowel at me; it didn't hurt at all, not even a little. "Aw, come now, young child!"

"'Child'? The only child here is you, Dxamana."

She frowned, stuffing the dishtowel in my hands huffily. "I see I'm wasting time with Emo McFatass here. I'm leaving. C'mon, Axel."

Said man walked out from behind me, stopping only to smirk at me before following her out of the kitchen, clutching a bag of chips and two sodas triumphantly. So there's where she was getting all of her stupid sayings from. I don't allow people to get snacks out of the kitchen while I'm in the middle of my shift of cooking duty a) Because it's distracting, and b) I feel it's better when everyone is hungry enough to eat what I have spent an hour or two preparing a meal, rather than shoving it off with a "I'm not hungry".

Or was that because my cooking wasn't good? In any case, she, along with a few exceptions, is one of the most avid snackers here, so she is often the one I'm kicking out and the one that she always tries to find some stupid way of getting revenge on.

I was hurled out of my thoughts suddenly, not because of the realization that she and Axel had gotten away by stealing junk food, but by the realization that...

I called after them, "Hey! I'm not fat!"

Someone just might find themselves hung up by their socks tomorrow morning.


	4. Chilling Knowledge

**Veeexeeeen?**

**He just sorta grows on you I guess. I wrote this in a notebook, and it looked much longer in there. Sorreh.**

**-Edited for characterization issues.-**

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Her? I don't think much of her; she's relatively respectful to me, at least. Some of the other members, such as Saix, are less fortunate.

Normally I don't allow others in my lab...rather, they allow themselves in, which, as you can imagine, agitates me greatly. If they can stay quiet, wonderful. However, it still unnerves me- I'm a man of solitude.

She is the only one beyond Xemnas, Xaldin, Lexaeus, Zexion, and Luxord to knock, this being unusual for such a loud girl. I allowed her in cautiously, keeping my eye on her as she looked around.

"What the hell do you do with all this stuff?" she asked, reaching out to dust her fingers over a bottle of clear liquid, bubbling innocently where it sat on a shelf.

I reached out and moved it out of her reach; a simple feat, as I was much taller than her. She looked up at me unhappily.

"Research," I answered curtly, going to my desk to reread over the papers I had been working on before she has interrupted. Work was work, guest present or not. "Sit."

She sat. "Research on what?" she whined.

When I didn't respond: "Come onnnn, Vexen!"

I grit my teeth slightly, but released a breath slowly through my nose to calm down. "Whatever catches my eye."

She leaned back, causing the chair to tip a bit as her brown eyes darted about my lab. Unsatisfied, she pressed, "Examples, please."

"You know what I study."

"No, I really don't." Her tone took on that of a sarcastic teenager- exactly what she was becoming.

I waved my hand dismissively. "The workings of the heart," I growled, trying to shake her off. She had the inquiring mind of a scientist, that was for sure, but she used it in all the wrong ways. "The human mind. Us Nobodies."

The chair came down on all fours with a _bang_. I winced.

"I don't blame you. Xemnas was all..." Her voice became high-pitched, almost overly feminine. "'Oh, Nobodies are heartless shells and our Organization and blah!'" She shook her head, snatching up a report fresh from the other day. "Gimme a fuckin' break."

I winced again, this time at her shameless cursing. "Let's be careful with the language, young lady," I snapped lamely. Good, Vexen. Be old-fashioned with her. Have her respect for you plummet.

To my surprise, she answered agreeingly, "Ok." She leaned forward and pointed to the paper. "What's that?"

My eyes followed the line her finger presented. "That's...the percentage of positive emotions a person has in an hour, on average."

She continued to return every so often, sometimes with questions, sometimes with new information, sometimes with a desire for more serious company. I taught her new tidbits of knowledge, and her I. We didn't think on our awkward friendship much.

Xigbar had said we should test to see which of us is smarter.

Pathetic.

And impossible.


	5. Not Exactly Silent

**Man, Lexaeus is kinda hard to write for.**

**Let me just say now that he's not stupid. TwT He's actually pretty intelligent, something along the lines of Vexen and Zexion. Does "former apprentice to a scientist" ring a bell? I wouldn't hire a total dumbass who just ISN'T smarter than a 5th grader to help me, God.**

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I don't like to talk to her. Call me cruel, call me antisocial, whatever pleases you...but in my opinion, what I see of her is a neophyte who spews random nonsense and runs about. I haven't seen her fight, so perhaps she actually has some talent in that area, similar to Demyx.

I keep to myself most of the time, speaking only when it is nessecary. I admit, oftentimes I'm lost in my own thoughts and inferences, and it's harder for me to pay attention to what someone else is saying during that time. I've observed that being quieter makes you a better listener and, sometimes, a better learner. My other would often contribute his opinion, and I can remember being scolded for speaking out of turn. It didn't stop me from trying my best to better comprehend a subject by talking. However, once I lost my heart, I started keeping quiet, taking my mentor's words to heart and finally gaining some more control over my mouth.

One day, I found that it was raining. There are only two forms of weather here, and that is dark with a starless sky or dark with pouring rain. When the latter occurs, I either go to my gym or, if I don't feel like working out, I'll go to the library and read, perhaps sit and think over something. I have found that other people join me, but rarely have I seen one who is not of the original six of Organization XIII come to keep me company.

Lucky me. I got her.

I heard the enourmous door to the castle's library creak open. Looking up, my face hardened when I saw her face, looking around in awe.

"Damn, this place is big." She saw me on the couch and waved, smiling in a cheery way that none of us here can muster truthfully. "Oh, hi, Lexaeus! Whatcha doing?"

I looked back down to the book I was flipping through, quickly finding my place and continuing to read. "I'm reading."

"Mind if I join you?" Once she saw my grimace at the thought of her disruptive shouting, she quickly added, "I'll be quiet. To be honest, it takes a lot of my concentration to read something."

_I wonder why,_ I thought before I could stop myself. I didn't respond to her offer, but immersed myself in my book.

She proceeded to wander around, ranting about how much she liked rainy days but how bad they made her feel.

"I mean, there's just nothing to do! And they make me feel so emo, y' know?"

I looked up briefly to see her starting to pick a rather large book on the universe from the shelf, struggling with the hefty thing. "I wouldn't know," I said quietly. "You're the only one amongst us who has a heart and can therefore feel."

"Hence why Xemnas gave me Emotion as an element." She stumbled over to where I sat and plopped down on the floor, seeing as I was lying on the couch and didn't particularly want to move. It seemed to be an unwritten rule with mankind, heartless or not: if someone had something first, they keep it until they're done with it. As she flipped through the pages, she said, "But you can be bored, right?"

I nodded. "We can be annoyed as well. Can you be quiet, as you promised me earlier?"

"Only 'cause you're my superior." She gave me a twisted smirk before opening her book.

I shut mine quickly. It's rather rare for her to make intelligent conversation with her...from what I've seen anyway. Vexen and she have been spending a lot of time together as of late, and as far as I know he is the least tolerable of the merrymaking type.

"Zero actually comes before five, Dxamana."

She flipped a page. "I know, but still, you're older than me and stuff like that...ooh!" She held up the book happily.

What I saw was all two pages, covered with an assortment of bright colored dots of all different colors, from white to yellow to red and blue. I felt as if I would go blind just from staring at it. The untrained eye wouldn't know what it was supposed to be at first glance, but I had read through that book already.

I nodded at her. "Yes, those are stars."

"Isn't that just extremely cool?!" She grinned and turned the page. "That picture was taken when a telescope focused on a picture as small as the head of a pin."

I leaned over to look at what she was reading. Politely she turned the book slightly so that I could see. "This interests you?"

"Well..." Her smile faded slightly. "I wanted to be an astronaut in my world. Until I get home, that's not possible. School stopped."

Abruptly she clutched her head and moaned. "Oh, shit! School's probably going on without me! Ugh, oh no, oh no! I'm going to be so behind!"

It's been so long since I have seen someone have a true breakdown. No one in the castle carries the ability to worry. Awkwardly I gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Calm down. Focus on the present. You'll cross that bridge when you come to it."

She removed her hands and exhaled, trying in vain to lose herself in the pictures of stars and faraway galaxies, star systems, all things far away from her problems. "That's a good point. But to be honest, I don't walk. I fly."

A brief smile crossed my face. I stood and walked to the door.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

I opened the door and stepped out. "Can't focus."

"Why?"

I'll tell you why.

I envy that girl's passion- no, lust- for life.


	6. Scheming Beans

**...how much for Zexy time? -shotshotshot for overused pun-**

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I think she's a sweet girl, thoughtful and cautious of the thoughts and feelings of others. She has no people smarts, poor thing, so she stumbles upon words and doesn't make eye contact when she talks to you. You would think that, due to the fact that our elements are so closely related (I with Illusion, toying with the mind; her with Emotion, toying with the heart), we would be the best of friends.

Honestly, sometimes I wish she wouldn't require attention constantly. We already have Demyx, Axel, Roxas...another is slightly too much for my taste.

"Jellybeans?" I asked curiously. We were sitting in the breakroom one afternoon, talking, when she had asked me to wait for a few minutes. With that she ran out of the room (no teleporting for her, it isn't possible because of her heart) and returned with a white bag of candy.

She frowned, hand tumbling the beans around as she watched them carefully for a flavor she preferred. "I'm not too fond of them myself, but they're good once in a while. My dad eats them by the bucketfu- ooh!"

Triumphantly she extracted two beans, both an off-white with brown spots. "Toasted Marshmallow!"

I scooted closer so I could peer in the bag at all the different colors and patterns on the candies. This was turning out to be strangely interesting.

"There are ones that taste like marshmallows?"

"Exactly like 'em." She popped the beans in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "There's popcorn, vanilla, coffee, pudding..."

"May I have some?"

I couldn't believe that I had caved in to something so childish and simple as candy. But then again, being positive is contagious.

She handed me the bag. At random I extracted a bright green jellybean. "What's this one?"

She referred to the bag. "Ew," she exclaimed, nose wrinkling, "That's kiwi. You can have it."

Regardless of her claim of the bad taste, I ate it. The vivid flavor filled my mouth quickly; I closed my eyes in order to enjoy it better. Something, a warm feeling that was close to real contentment, spread slowly over my chest. She giggled, a cheery sound.

"Looks like jellybeans have an orgasmic effect on ya, Zexion."

My eyes snapped open, and I glared at her, swallowing the jellybean. "They are not, Dxamana."

"Riiiight." She fished around in the bag. "Score one for Amanda, zero for Zexy," she mumbled, using her original name- by accident, I presume. She's been hearing it all her life and, without being a Nobody, a new name suddenly thrust upon you is hard to get used to.

Concealing my frustration behind an amused (and smug) grin, I reached over to grab a few more candies, popping them in my mouth without checking which flavors they were.

"Hey!" She reached into my hand and took a vibrant blue one. Smirking, she ate it quickly.

I laughed softly. "That was mine."

She pointed to her stomach before rising from the couch. "It's mine now. Here," she added, giving me the bag. "Just don't eat any of my favorites."

"Your favorites?"

"Buttered Popcorn, Berry Blue, Toasted Marshmallow, French Vanilla, Sizzling Cinnamon, and regular Cinnamon."

I stared into the bag curiously. As I have said before, she was thoughtful, asking if she could help with a mission or randomly awarding various Organization members with gifts. What I forgot to add was that she was thoughtful to a fault, felping if she was bored and awarding us with gifts only if she felt like it.

"You know what, Zexion?"

I looked up, in the middle of chewing a licorice-flavored bean. If anyone had caught me in that position, eating jellybeans as it they were the very food of whatever being(s) reigned supreme, they would've laughed themselved to death (assuming they had hearts to begin with), perhaps taking pictures for blackmail. But I was with silly little _her_, not anyone else.

"You should study what makes people happy, instead of just the heart." She pointed to the candy bag. "That's a pret-ty good start."

Above all, Dxamana was a good thinker.

I preferred her that way.


	7. Diviner and Reanimator

**Ugh, Saix.**

**I hate Saix. Or highly dislike, if you will. Please don't bitch about that. The way he's **_**too**_** calm and a little **_**too**_** cruel sets me on edge, kay? In turn I won't scream if you're a Saix fan.**

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She doesn't nessecarily like me, I believe, and I don't nessecarily enjoy her either. We don't talk to each other much for the sake of our sanity, as each conversation ends in a head-turning shouting match and weapons being drawn. Usually someone will step in and stop the fight before any more sparks fly, but once or twice we've found each other clashing, my power of the moon rivaling her power of emotion. I always win, of course, much to her dismay and determination to become a better opponent.

Whenever she sees me in the halls or in a room, she stalks out quickly, avoiding my eyes. Occasionally she taunts me before she leaves (starting said shouting matches), but these are few and rare breaks in our unspoken pact.

I walked into the Addled Impasse one night to find her, staring at the Kingdom Hearts in-progress, stopped in the middle of scribbling in her notebook. Some entry in that infernal diary she always talks about writing.

She turned at the sound of me transporting into the room, eyes narrowing. I stared blankly back.

"Ew. It's a Saix," she snarked, quickly slamming the enourmous notebook shut. "Run away."

The usual response. I crossed my arms defensively, eyes not leaving her. "Xemnas ordered me to come fetch you."

Jumping to her feet, she batted her eyelashes at me. (There's a pleasant change for once.) "Ooh! Xemnas?" she gushed, clutching her hands at her chest and staring dreamily off into space. "Xeeeeeemnas?!"

I snorted. "Don't start."

She minced over to where I stood, acting as if she were wearing heels. "Do tell!" she cooed, leaning on my shoulder heavily.

"Nothing to tell." I tried to shrug her off, but she held fast- something I haven't expected her to do to me before now.

"What were you dooooing?"

"Business matters."

I should've known better- she's overly perverted for her age. Leaping at a chance to make a wisecrack comment, she sighed, "Ah, I bet you were doing more than 'business matters' in there! I bet you and Xemnas were whispering sweet nothings into each other's ear while feeling each other's-"

I snarled and gave her a more forceful shove, this time managing to push her to the ground. "You're treading on thin ice, Number Zero."

Her eyes widened, the taunts stopping. However, she continued to whack my buttons in little ways. "Don't address me by number, Saix. You can't do that."

"And what unwritten rule says I can't?" I grit my teeth with frustration.

"Only the original six members can do that!" She held up six fingers. "See?" Another finger popped up. "That's you. Starting from you down to Roxas, no one else can call me 'Number Zero', only 'Dxamana'. Or 'Amanda', if you are so inclined."

"That's absurd. I can call you by whatever name I please."

"In that case, I can call you 'worthless pile of dog shit', right?"

Not a second later she leaped away from my claymore, the weapon tearing her silver coat at the edges. Power coursed through my body, paired with anger...

"Moon, shine down!"

Her own weapons came out. "I summon thee: Rage!"

We were screaming with determination, pulsing with the influence of our elements, the sound of crashing and clanging metal filling the room, dotted with the occasional grunt from getting hit.

If this didn't stop soon. Dxamana would get herself killed. I say, good riddance.


	8. Fighting With Fire

**Axel time.**

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She's okay.

Just okay.

Her mouth sometimes lands her in a position where she's reduced to scrubbing floors with the Dusks and, I admit, having someone with an actual heart around gets old after a time, not to mention annoying. It's frustrating when whenever someone mentions Kingdom Hearts, she rolls her eyes and turns away. However, her snarkiness is amusing, especially when it gets her and Saix into brawls. She often tags along with someone all day for company, and she'll help me out if she gets something out of it.

Seeing as both of us have projectile weapons, I was assigned as her trainer. Ugh, great. She throws the ninja stars like they're supposed to be paper airplanes or something and they end up leaving huge cracks in my bedroom wall because of it. Her control over Emotion also sucks, but hey, I'm working on it.

"Aim...fire!"

She launched her weapon towards the target but it ends up lodging itself in the wall instead.

"Damn it, Dxamana," I sighed, "That was the biggest target I could find and you STILL can't hit it?"

She growled in frustration, summoning the ninja star back to her. It vanished, leaving a hole in the white wall, certainly not the first. "I'm trying, ok?! They don't teach fighting with projectile weapons in school."

I ran a hand through my hair, making a face at her snappiness. Something about insomnia? "Okay, I catch your drift. Look, just try again. FOCUS on what you want to aim at instead of just hucking the weapon."

On my command, she fired...

And hit the very edge of the target.

"God!" She threw up her hands and nearly dropped her second weapon on her foot. "Can we fight now?"

"Hell no. Three more shots. If you don't hit the bullseye at least once you're outta here for the week."

She snarled. Woah, tigress. She couldn't hit a piece of foam and yet she wanted to fight me? Spare me, kid. The wiring's not right up there, I could tell.

Without even aiming, she chucked the star halfheartedly at the target. Again, it hit the very edge. She frowned and threw the weapon harder, again not aiming and missing. She plopped down on the floor, dismissing her weapons and pouting like a little kid. "Fuck this! I didn't even agree to help Xemnas and I have to fight?!"

"Calm down." I crossed my arms and strode in front of her. "You've still got one more shot left. No one's perfect on the first try." I smiled a little, "In fact, we make it look easy."

"This isn't my first try, Axel. You've tried training me for over a week and I must have left over a hundred holes in the wall." She threw her arms out, gesturing towards the wall's many injuries.

I dragged her back up to her feet, clapping her on the back so she would stand up straighter. "C'mon. Shoot one more time or you're not getting training at all, and then you really will be a stick in the mud here."

She mumbled something about it sounding appealing, but summoned a single ninja star, aimed as best she could, and hurled it.

_Smack. _The sheet of metal stood there silently, halfway inside the bullseye. It wobbled innocently from the impact.

"Okay, kid." I summoned my weapons and backed away from her. "You win. Now let's see how you do with a moving target."

She snorted and took aim, the edge of the thin blade resting dangerously near the skin between her eyes. "Whatever."

I think that curiosity killed the cat only because it was a prideful bastard to think it could venture out in front of a moving car to take a gander at it without getting killed. She relayed that image right back at me perfectly without realizing it.


	9. Waiting For Music

**Dance, water, dance.**

------------------------

She makes great company. I like talking to her because no one else in this castle will talk to me...at least not more than a couple minutes. Yeah, she can be a little mean sometimes, but at least she takes time outta her day to have a quick conversation or say hi in the halls.

Xemnas had said I had a half an hour wait until I was to be deployed for my next mission. I sat in the hall outside of his office, plucking at a few strings of my sitar aimlessly as I waited. Some water clones bothered to pop up and dance around for a bit, but they quickly disappeared upon realizing that they had no tune to dance to. The twang of the instrument bounced off of the pale walls, echoes shooting down the hallway.

Footsteps approached, and I looked up. Usually when someone approaches me while I have my sitar out, it's to tell me to stop playing and put it away. I don't know what's wrong, I think I'm pretty good myself. This time, though, I first thought it was Xemnas. Quickly I realized that the footsteps were coming from my right, while if it were Xemnas the footsteps would be coming from my left...

There she was, trudging down the hallway, heels clicking on the tile floor. She stopped about six feet away and raised an eyebrow.

"Demyx? What are you doing?"

"Waiting," I answered simply, turning back to my sitar.

"For what?"

"Waiting for the Superior to tell me what my mission is."

Her face alighted with surprise, mouth going into a small _o_. "He called me down here too. Maybe we're working together or something?"

I nodded. "Could be." Our personalities did work pretty well. But, I thought with remorse, Xemnas didn't really pay too much attention about who worked well with who. He just paired you up with someone; it was all in the abilities. Someone's brawn could balance out someone's strategizing, someone's speed could act as a distraction, you know. I'm paired up with the weirdest people. It makes ya wonder what the Superior is thinking sometimes.

She sat down next to me and hovered a hand over the strings. "Can I pluck one?"

"Sure." Didn't she want to play a song or something? Maybe she didn't know how.

She pulled on one of the strings hard, allowing it to make a loud and satisfying bang of sound. She jumped. "God, that thing's loud."

I laughed a little and went back to tugging the strings. "I haven't heard of a quiet instrument, really..."

"Play something."

I stared at her curiously. It had been such a long time since someone has actually asked me to play them something, since my music is "annoying" to pretty much everyone here.

"What song?"

She shrugged, giving out a little _tch_ of impatience as she clutched at her knees. "I don't give a crap. Whatever you want."

And just as I was going to start, someone's voice boomed above me. It was a voice that I was very used to hearing by now.

"Don't you dare, Number Nine," Xemnas commanded.

Dxamana snickered a little. "Sorry, Demyx."

"And don't encourage him, Number Zero," he ground out at her, narrowing his eyes.

I suppose he thought we made a great team.

But heck if I know what he thinks.


	10. On Gambling with Patience

**Aha, I liked Luxord long before I liked anyone else. Or was it Demyx that went first? Oh well. Accents for the win!**

------------------------

Oh, her. That girl likes to take risks a lot, as long as the stakes aren't too high and there is an option that works out in her favor. Not too bad: she's got the kind of mind I enjoy. Regarding cards, dice, and money, however, she's slightly more apathetic. She'd rather read or play any of those video games rather than play a nice round with me or the other members. I've asked her a few times, and this time I pushed her a bit more.

"Are you sure?" I asked her. "I promise that I'll go easy on you, then."

"Okay, first of all, I don't trust you very much, seeing what you've done to the rest of the Organization regarding cards," she snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at me. Me? What makes you say that, little Dxamana? "Second off," she added, counting off on her fingers, "I don't fricking want to play cards with you!"

"May I ask why not?"

"I don't like cards, ok?" She turned on her heel and continued in the direction she was walking in. "It's not my cup of tea. Or soda, if you're not up for that lame-ass British pun I made without realizing it."

Ignoring whatever pun there was and the millionth time she's used the word "British" in regards to me (I swear on my life I'll ask her what it means), I strode up to her and blocked her path. "If I don't bother you any more after this, will you play a quick game with me?"

She shot me a very, very dirty glare. If looks could kill! However, she sighed and crossed her arms in pure defeat. "Fine," she grumbled, staring away from me at a stark white pillar as if it had just pickpocketed her and was playing dumb to her interrogation.

I smirked; I had wore her down and now it was time to reap what I had won- a good game to wile away the next hour or so. "Perfect, then. What game do you want to play?"

"I don't give a flying fuck, to be honest, Luxord," she snapped. "You made me play cards with you anyhow."

"And you gave in to the poking and prodding." I shifted my weight to my left, leaning to the side casually as I stared at her. She was at least at eye level with me, so there was no true need to stare down at her.

An audible snarl worked its way up from the depths of her throat. "Ugh, fine!" She threw up her hands. "War."

I opened my mouth to argue further with her, as War wasn't something I was in the mood for, but I decided that the odds weren't in my favor this time. "Alright, war it is." I summoned my cards as we started towards the nearby library, where she was heading in the first place. "I must warn you though, I have a way of not going easy on anyone."

"I thought you said that you would go easy on me?"

I held my hands up in defeat. "Silly me. I forgot to specify that I would only _try._"

She never agreed to play cards with me again.

Later, however, she might have regretted that decision. When I was chosen to go to a world called Port Royal, she gaped at me.

"I promise I'll play cards with you every single day if you let me come with you!" she whined, after hearing my given description of the place I was assigned to go to.

I laughed. "I thought you swore you never would play any games with me, cards or otherwise?"

She was cornered, and she sensed it. "Fine, be difficult."

So now she's lumping us in the same group?

That girl never fails to amuse me.


	11. The Assassin's Introduction

**It's Marlushia. Gasp.**

------------------------

It seems these days that the Superior is recruiting a lot more kids.

Being one of the lower members, I keep my eye on her- she's just one more that I have control over. I rarely find myself in The Castle That Never Was, seeing as Castle Oblivion is under my ownership and I must keep it that way; however, I left the castle's inhabitants to their own devices for a few weeks, dropping by to visit my _dear_ old friends in the other castle we own. When I first noticed her walking about, I followed her, keeping to myself in order to study her personality better. She is indeed a bright, lively little thing, but she has such a terrible habit of snapping at others, superiors and inferiors alike. Most snap back at her, some even punishing her if they are high enough to have the right.

One afternoon, I made my move.

She was doodling aimlessly on a sheet of paper, reminding me of the drawings Namine would like to do. I approached her quietly, smiling slightly when I got her attention.

"I believe I'm the last person to introduce myself to you. I am Marluxia." I held out a hand, which she didn't take immediately. Rather, she eyed it with apprehension before taking it firmly and giving it a shake.

"Dxamana." She grinned, a predatory smirk, before letting it fade and cocking her head. I had noticed her curiosity, but had never felt how intense that inquiring stare was. "Why in God's name is your hair pink?"

I cleared my throat. "It's my favorite color. Is there a problem with that?"

I could sense that her self-control was quickly escaping through her very ears. She shook her head quickly and leaned back in her chair. "No, no, not at all. I'm just not used to it."

Imagine that. There are people here walking around with _blue_ hair, for Kingdom Hearts' sake. She's taken aback by a slightly pale pink, when there are much more vivid colors sitting atop people's heads?

"Not used to it?" I bent down to look her in the eye, my expression calm. "What do you mean?"

Before she got a chance to answer me, I straightened and tutted. "It's not important, I suppose."

"Weirdo." She stood up and looked around for a clock. How long has it taken her to realize that there was barely a clock around this forsaken castle? "Do you know what time it is?"

I crossed my arms and shrugged. "Why? Are you in a hurry, Number...?"

"Zero. And no, I'm not. Just hungry." I raised a single eyebrow at her number placement. Zero wasn't exactly a number. In fact, it was the absence of anything, which was fitting and unfitting for her. From what I've heard, she isn't a real member, which makes perfect sense, but also has a heart. She's more here than the rest of us dare to be.

"I believe dinner is around an hour for now."

She cursed and headed for the door. Her stride was quick and stiff; a sure sign that she didn't feel comfortable around me. "Ok, then, I'll deal." Quickly she turned on her heel and gave me a nod. "See you around, Marluxia."

I nodded back, and she escaped from the room.

I snorted. So abrupt, even rude of her to walk out without so much as a proper conversation. My gaze wandered to the drawings she was making. I've found that one could find out a lot from what one writes, draws, or reads. Namine constantly draws beaches and images of herself with other people, a display that proved to me that she looked for release from the confines of the white walls she dwells in. But that's not important, is it?

Dxamana's scribblings aren't very good. They're of small, deformed people, and, if I squinted hard enough, I could make out members of the Organization. There was the Superior...Xigbar...Xaldin...Vexen...Lexaeus...all the way down to Luxord. But then it went abruptly to Larxene, and finally Roxas. Where I was supposed to be, there was only a question mark and a small note:

"Where the hell is Number Eleven?"

I had certainly noticed her, and she had just noticed me a few minutes ago. No wonder I unnerved her.


	12. Savage Initiation

**Now for Larxene.**

------------------------

Girls have to stick together, right?

Pfft. Whatever. She can go fend for herself. I nearly choked on my own spit when Xemnas announced the arrival of another member and the only female besides me. I'm being honest! I never woulda thought that the Superior had it in him to get himself another girl member. But that isn't the kicker- it's the fact that she's not a NOBODY. Ding! Right! She has a heart! Why is she even here in the first place?

Being the ever curious person I am, I decided to ask her the first day she was here.

"Oh, Dxaaaamanaaaaa!"

She stiffened, turning around quickly. "Oh. Hi," she said quietly, smiling when she saw me.

At that rate, I thought, she would be a perfectly easy target. I crossed my arms and looked to the side nonchalantly. "Yeah, hi. Name's Larxene, Number 12."

"Hey, Larxene. My name's Dxamana." She stuck out a hand for me to shake, but I waved it off, smiling at her. She seemed to be taking the bait well enough, and her posture slackened.

"No need to be so formal," I cooed at her, tilting my head to the side a little. "Just wanted to get to know you better, y'know?"

"Totally. So..." Shifting her weight from foot to foot, she let her voice trail off.

"So...? Did you want to ask me somethin'?"

"Naw." Now it was her turn to wave me off. "I was prompting you."

I laughed coldly. I didn't need a prompt. "Whatever, Dxamana. Well...why don't we go outside?"

I was taking a major risk there. It was a stormy day outside, rain pouring like crazy, and I wasn't sure if she had looked out the window to check. I was in luck- she didn't know. "Um, ok," she said, her cheeriness rapidly wearing away when she saw my smirk.

On the way to the front door of the castle (I needed to ask her on the way there, or else I would've transported us), I casually brought the topic of her acceptance into the Organization up. "Sooo, do you know why you're here?"

"I don't know." She threw up her hands. "That guy...what's his name..."

"Xemnas?"

"Yeah, him. He made this dirty promise with me: He'd transport me home only if I helped you guys out for the time being."

"Ouch." I pouted convincingly. "That's pretty harsh."

We were in the main hall of the castle now, near the bridge leading down to the city below. Rain was thumping hard on the metallic roof of the castle, the sounds resonating around the hollow room. She cringed, pointing out towards the city.

"Larxene, it's raining. Are you sure you want to go outside?"

My eyes widened a little at her catching on. I couldn't get wet, right? I was a lightning element, right? Well...as long as _I_ don't get wet, we'll be all set. Catch my drift yet?

"Nonsense!" I giggled, giving Dxamana a clap on the shoulder. "We'll stay in the shade. And by we..."

Taking her shoulder more firmly now, I gave her a shove onto the bridge and into the rain. Water ran down her coat and started to soak her hair as I continued, "I mean me!"

"Hey!" She tried to yank her hood up, but only succeeded in dumping more water onto herself. Growling, she tried shoving her hair out of her eyes, failing and settling to glaring at me out of her short brown locks. "What the hell was that for?"

"Your initiation." I summoned my kunai and made a test joly of electricity hit the ground by my feet. "I'd very much like to see how many volts a heart can take."

"W-wait!" She waved her hands in front of her. "C'mon, stupid weapons...c'mon!" She mumbled.

Heh. She had a lot to learn, didn't she? Fortunately, _we_ were here to teach her how to survive.


	13. The Key

**And finally Roxas! (: I'm actually not quite done yet. This is the second to last chapter.**

------------------------

Heh. It's funny, being surrounded by people older than you who have been your superiors for some time now, but then getting another teen, even younger than you, thrown into the mix. Especially if it's a girl. I was hoping for someone more cooperative than Larxene, because as nice as it is being surrounded by people of your own gender, it makes me feel more comfortable if there's more than just one girl with us. I think I was the first person she approached, besides Xemnas.

"Hi," she said cheerily from behind. I turned to face her fully, having to look up just a little bit.

"Oh. Hey." I nodded politely, having nothing else to do since I think shaking a hand is too formal. "What's your name again?"

"Dxamana." I noticed something strange- she stumbled over her new name and nearly said another one. And I don't mean Amanda, either.

"I'm Roxas."

She grinned. "Nice to meet ya, Roxas. You're the only one near my age here, anyhow, so I thought I'd come over and say hi."

"Wasn't Zexion in his late teens when he became a Nobody or something?"

"Well..." She shrugged. "My fourteenth birthday is in a week or something like that. At least, I think you're close to my age."

We started walking, her falling into step besides me. "Yeah. I'm turning fifteen soon."

She was very casual, I noticed, hardly even bothering to talk formally to the higher-ups. I guess that's because she's Number Zero and zero comes before all the other numbers, but I overheard in a conversation that zero isn't even a true number by itself, and in that case, she should be talking to everyone with respect, even me. I don't think anyone other than Xemnas or Xigbar can really order her around, though. She'll listen to you if you tell her to do something, but only if she doesn't disagree with doing it herself.

The thing that really interested me was the fact that she wasn't a Nobody. I can understand Namine being kept because she's a Nobody like the rest of us, but some random kid they found off the streets? Was Xemnas not caring about us anymore?

During an afternoon, about five days after she had been introduced to us, she was doing some report or something for the Superior. At the sound of the big library doors opening, she looked up, smiling when she saw me slink through the crack in the door.

"Hey, Roxas! What's up?"

I crossed my arms, my voice sounding more hostile than I wanted it to be. "Why are you here?"

She blinked at my harsh tone. "What?"

"Why are you here?" I repeated, louder now. I glared at her as an afterthought.

She sighed and put down her pencil, rubbing her temples before looking back up at me. Her eyes were sad, but it didn't shake me. "I don't know, ok?"

"But you're a Somebody! Have you even turned into a Heartless or a Nobody ever?!"

She blinked again, more confused than before. "What the heck's a Heartless? And what's a Nobody?"

I opened my mouth to yell at her to stop playing dumb, but shut it quickly once I saw her genuinely confused expression. She didn't know what I was talking about. Exactly what world did she grow up in, anyway? I did hear about Saix going to a world called Earth for something a week or two ago...

I sighed and asked her, quiet now, "Have you ever lost your heart?"

"You mean...did I ever die?" She laughed. "Why do you want to know that? If I died, I wouldn't be here, now, would I?"

How can she laugh like that? Had she even been explained to about what we were? Did she have any sympathy at all, or was that whole heart thing just a joke? "Yeah. That's exactly what I mean. So it looks like you haven't."

She looked back down on her reports. "Is that all you need to know? Because I really need to finish these things for Xemnas."

"No, I'm not done!" I took the reports from her, earning myself a "Hey!" and a disapproving look. She was going to hate me for a while, that was for sure. "You never answered my original question! Why are you here?!" I was really yelling now; it was a good thing no one else was in the library, or else we would've both been kicked out and punished.

She made a grab for the papers, but I pulled them higher in the air. "Answer me!"

"Ugh!" As furious as I was, she stamped her foot and began, her voice snappy and annoyed, "Ok, Roxas, it's like this..."

She's forgiven me now for my outburst, but I still want my answers. Her explanation wasn't enough to explain why Xemnas appointed the people he did, especially me and her. After nearly a year of not knowing, of the question of my existence in the Organization staying unanswered, of why I was a Keyblade wielder being ignored, of the lack of a true explanation of what exactly Dxamana could of being in the dark, I left. I left her to be the only teenager in a group of adults.

I never got to see how she took it.


	14. Zero: The Epilogue

Sora shot a glare at the silver-robed person. He wasn't sure if it was a female or male (they did have some curves, but still he wasn't sure) because their hood stayed up.

"Who are you?!" he demanded, summoning his Keyblade.

The person remained silent; they didn't even make a move to summon their own weapon.

"Who are you?!" he demanded again. He got in fighting position, getting ready to strike.

In response, this being, girl or boy or old or young or Nobody or Heartless or _human_, laughed.

**FIN.**

**Here's to hoping the fans of this will go ahead and read the main fic when it comes out! (It's called Absolute Zero, if you're wondering, and should be out in June.) Thanks for reading!**


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